Friday, March 29, 2024

Carroll Elementary Celebrates One of their Own

Carroll Elementary staff and students pulled off an outstanding surprise earlier today in honor of one of their own. Ms. Jenny Lopez, members of the maintenance staff for the campus recently completed all the qualifications to become a United States Citizen. The campus surprised her with a pep rally in her honor.

Lopez entered the gymnasium to the sounds of patriotic music, cheers from those in attendance and hundreds of waving American flags. During the event, Principal Stacy Wagnon described the process that Lopez went through to earn her citizenship and lead a quick “quiz” to see if any of the students knew the answers to the test questions from her citizenship test.

The event concluded with the singing of the National Anthem. For Lopez, it was an emotional moment she won’t soon forget.

“When I walked through the doors, I was so excited,” Lopez said. “I have been working on this for over a year and a half, and today was very special to me.”

There is an extensive process for someone to become a U.S. citizen including a naturalization interview, an English test, and a civics test. Once the process is complete, the new citizen gets to take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Lopez will be taking that oath in the next few weeks.

Director of Facilities, Bob Carabajal has been able to walk alongside Lopez through this process, is thankful that this moment was shared with the students that love Lopez so much.

“Jenny does an amazing job taking care of her Dragon family here at Carroll Elementary,” Carbajal said. “You can see it in the smiles on the students’ faces when she walks down the hall, they absolutely love her here. For the students, staff and our department to be able to share this with her is a very special moment for her but also all of us.”

An image of a family bowling and dining

Photo of a solar eclipse